Our staff

The team at the McPin Foundation is made up of researchers, public and patient involvement in research experts, policy professionals, and operations and project support staff. Most people work on a range of projects and we often also work alongside peer researchers supporting pieces of work as freelance researchers or peer involvement specialists. The majority of staff are based at our office in London.

Dr Vanessa Pinfold

Vanessa has been working in mental health research for over 25 years. She has published studies on stigma and discrimination, families and carers, experiences of the mental health system, wellbeing networks as well as more recently co-production in mental health research. She is currently prioritising developing peer research methods through collaborative or co-production approaches. This includes work developing a community navigators approach to combat loneliness among people with depression and anxiety, developing a collaborative model of care working across primary and secondary care for people with on-going mental health needs, and progressing work on wellbeing networks. Vanessa is an experienced health services researcher and leader within the mental health research charity sector. She currently chairs the Alliance of Mental Health Research Funders and at McPin is the co-founder and research director who is responsible for overseeing the work of the charity. She has a PhD from University of Nottingham, Department of Geography.

Vanessa Pinfold, Research Director

Dr Dan Robotham

Dan joined McPin in March 2017. He has experience of conducting and managing research and evaluation across NHS, academic and charity settings. Before joining McPin, he was a researcher and coordinator of Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) at the Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre. He worked at the Mental Health Foundation for four years. Before this he was at UCL, where he coordinated a clinical trial to improve learning disabilities services whilst also completing a PhD on the experiences of those who were taking part in the trial.

Dan Robotham, Deputy Research Director

Dr Thomas Kabir

Thomas leads the Public Involvement in Research (PIiR) programme at the McPin Foundation. Thomas has a first degree in physics and a PhD in bioinformatics from University College London. Thomas’s PhD focused on understanding how proteins bind to one another to form complexes. After completing his doctorate he worked as a mental health advocate for Mind in Camden. He also worked with Commissioning Support for London to support the establishment of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies services (IAPT) across London. From 2009 until 2014 Thomas was the coordinator of the national service user involvement arm of the NIHR Mental Health Research Network. Thomas has worked on a number of national public and patient involvement (PPI) in research initiatives including the ‘Budgeting for Involvement’ guide together with INVOLVE, and service user focused outcome measures. Thomas has also helped to produce several resources that aim to help people in receipt of welfare benefits receive payments for involvement work.

Thomas Kabir, Head of Public Involvement in Research

Dr Rose Thompson

Rose has worked as a social scientist for 10 years. She completed her PhD in social psychology at Cardiff University, which explored health related attitude change. Following her PhD she has been involved in producing research in both social and genetic perspectives on intellectual disability, epilepsy and mental health, using quantitative and qualitative perspectives. She has also contributed to teaching of and student supervision in ethical perspectives in genetic counselling. Rose joined The McPin Foundation in 2015 and works on a number of projects that encompass elements of peer support, personalisation and recovery, on which she works with a number of talented peer researchers. She is particularly interested in the impact of interpersonal relationships on mental health, and people may be supported to nurture supportive and positive relationships with the people close to them. She also has an interest in using creative methodologies (visual arts, writing, or theatre) to work with people to achieve a greater understanding of their experiences with mental health, and to produce work that can communicate those experiences to wide audiences.

Rose Thompson, Senior Research Manager

Dr Andreja Mesaric

Andreja completed her PhD in anthropology at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2011. Since then, she has worked in London as a researcher and project manager in the voluntary sector, primarily on projects supporting refugees and migrants. In 2014-15 she worked on a research project at Middlesex University looking at voluntary sector services available to women experiencing perinatal mental health problems. She has also taught research methodology to undergraduate anthropology students at the University of Ljubljana and a Level 3 Research for Action and Influence course aimed at refugee and migrant community organisations at the Evelyn Oldfield Unit in north London. Andreja joined the McPin Foundation in 2015. She has a particular interest in refugee and migrant mental health.

Andreja Mesaric, Research Manager

Jennie Parker

Jennie Parker joined the McPin Foundation in 2017 as a Senior Researcher. She previously worked for Emergence Plus CIC as a lived experience researcher and Project Co-ordinator, focusing on research and evaluation within the NHS and HMPPS. Jennie has also been a KUF trainer since 2014 and continues to co-facilitate the Knowledge and Understanding Framework training (working effectively with personality disorder). Her research interests lie primarily in personality disorder, where she is also involved in research with external institutions as co-applicant on RfPB studies. Co-design and co-production of both research and services underlie her approach to her work and this extends to how services can better help those with both mental and physical health needs. Jennie has a BA in English and Sociology, a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and an MSc in Clinical Neuroscience. The impact of diagnosis and how this is both delivered and perceived are also areas that influence much of her current work.

Jennie Parker, Senior Researcher

Rajvi Kotecha-Hazzard

Rajvi Kotecha Hazzard is a Researcher at the McPin Foundation, joining in April 2015. She has worked in the field of mental health for five years, both in the charity sector and for the NHS. She has spent the last year assisting individuals leaving crisis care as a peer support worker, introducing innovative practices to support recovery. She is an expert by experience public speaker for National Mind, sharing personal stories to challenge stigma and raise awareness of mental health to a range of audiences. She has worked extensively with Mind in Harrow, supporting the setup, delivery and evaluation of projects. She has a passion for using her lived experience of mental health to support others and now has the opportunity to use this experience to inform research being delivered at the McPin Foundation. Rajvi holds a BSc with honours in Psychology and Anthropology from Brunel University, and an MA in International Relations from the University of Nottingham.

Rajvi Kotecha-Hazzard, Researcher

Humma Andleeb

Humma is a Researcher at McPin, having joined the team in September 2017. She has a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry and Neuroscience and has previously been involved in volunteer roles empowering communities by raising mental health awareness. She is a keen blog writer and book reader and has previously spoken publically at events about her lived experience as a South Asian woman. Humma is passionate about improving diversity within mental health research and making opportunities accessible for people from disadvantaged backgrounds and marginalised communities. She is particularly interested in bridging the gap and building relationships between researchers/academics and groups who are overrepresented in mental health services but underrepresented in mental health research. Humma hopes to impact and progress mental health research by combining and applying her academic knowledge, research interests and lived experience to current and future research at McPin.

Humma Andleeb, Researcher

John Gibson

John works on the PARTNERS2 research programme, which aims to develop better ways of supporting people with severe mental illness within GP practices. He joined McPin as the Service User Researcher on the programme in August 2015 and is based at the University of Birmingham. Following an MA at the Courtauld Institute of Art, John served as Chair of North Staffs Voice, a user-led organisation that worked for improvements in mental health services. As someone who lives with a diagnosis of bipolar, John’s involvement with the third sector continues to this day as head of client and user engagement at North Staffs Mind. In PARTNERS2, John brings twenty years of experience to a role that emphasises the importance of personal experience of mental health problems in complementing clinical and academic approaches to mental health research. He also serves as Chair of the Study Steering Committee for the EDITION Study at the University of Manchester, and is a panel member for the selection and re-approval of Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs) in Staffordshire.

PARTNERS2, Service User Research Associate

Rachel Temple

Rachel is a Public Involvement in Research Officer and Researcher at the McPin Foundation, having joined the team as a trainee in 2017. She previously worked for organisations such as Priory Group and MCCH, supporting young people with mental health difficulties and learning disabilities. She currently helps manage an online peer support group for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Rachel graduated in 2016 with a BSc with honours in Psychology from the University of Kent. During her studies, she used her personal experiences to investigate the relationship between physical exercise and anxiety-related difficulties. At The McPin Foundation, she hopes to challenge current perceptions of mental health problems within young people, with a special interest in Social Anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and self-harm. Rachel aims to combine her practical and personal experiences of mental health in order to promote quality research. She also supports the Public Involvement in Research (PIiR) programme, by coordinating McPin’s Young People Advisory Group, the wider young people’s network and promoting public involvement and engagement in various other projects.

Rachel Temple, Public Involvement in Research Officer and Researcher

Jessica Bond

Jessica joined McPin in
August 2018. After a BSc in Physics, she worked as a science journalist and
editor for eight years before completing an MSc in Psychology in 2017. Since
studying she has worked as a freelance writer, researcher and communications
consultant, often but not exclusively in the mental health sector, where she
continues to volunteer. Her role as Communications Specialist and Researcher
allows her to combine her old world with her new.

Jessica Bond, Communications Specialist and Researche

Odette Gardiner

Odette joined the McPin foundation as Administrator in February 2018. Her role involves general administrative duties and office support to ensure smooth running of the office. Odette has completed a two year PA course which has provided her with the relevant skills to support the whole team. Before joining McPin Odette has worked for Greenpeace and volunteered in an Indonesia wildlife rescue centre. After experiencing mental health through personal experiences Odette wanted to join McPin to gain a better understanding of the research that is being developed for mental health and the different ways it can be tackled.